This is a developing story.
A reduced payment of about $6,300, instead of the originally proposed $8,000, by property owners in a zone at risk of glacial outburst flooding to pay for protective barriers was approved Monday night by the Juneau Assembly, based on the city paying 60% of the cost rather than 50%.
The amendment was made to a proposed ordinance establishing a Local Improvement District (LID) for 462 properties in the Mendenhall Valley considered vulnerable to flooding from Suicide Basin. The funding would cover installation and maintenance of military-grade flood barriers being supplied by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a semipermanent levee along the most-populated side of the Mendenhall River.
Dozens of residents attended Monday’s Assembly meeting, the first of two public comment meetings on the ordinance scheduled, with clearly divided opinions for and against the proposed ordinance during testimony that lasted more than an hour. Assembly member Neil Steininger introduced the amendment to switch the split of the $7.8 million total local cost of installing the barriers to 60/40 with the city paying the higher end.
The per-property payment under the revision would be $6,291.85, rather than $7,972.10 under a 50/50 plan, payable over a 10-year period, according to Steininger. The amendment passed by a 5-3 vote.
Another amendment by Mayor Beth Weldon that passed unanimously would give four property owners facing an additional $50,000 fee to have riverbank armoring installed to safeguard against erosion up to 30 years to pay the full amount rather than the 10 years for others in the LID.
City Manager Katie Koester said mailings are scheduled to go out this week to everyone on the proposed LID assessment role. A neighborhood meeting is tentatively planned in January, with a second Assembly meeting to get public comments and hear objections from property owners to LID scheduled Feb. 3.
Koester has stated the hope is to pass an ordinance at the February meeting that allows the ordinance to take effect in early March, which could be legally challenged until early April, with the ultimate goal of installing the semipermanent levee before the risk of flooding from Suicide Basin becomes significant next summer.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
